Week 11/11/18-11/17/18

There are a whole lot of 1s in that title:)

This week I have been trying to get back into the swing of things. 

Got back into doing preschool with Michelle and I think she now knows all 26 letters. My main goal for preschool with her this year was to make sure she knew all the letters. HOWEVER, that is just the Capital letters I believe. I don't think I really focus on lower letters because those can be SO tricky. She can also now count up to 30 so that is an improvement.

She also knows her 1st & 2nd Articles of Faith.

We haven't really tried #3, that is a longer one. However, when Matthew was 3 almost 4, he knew ALL 13 so I am definitely slacking with her.

It has been cold and rainy this week so we went to the library for playgroup and it is fun to see ladies outside of church.

I wanted to go eat lunch with Allison so we were going to go to a younger storytime but OH MY GOODNESS there were SO many kids in there, we just left the room. I was trying to decide, or get Michelle to decide if she wanted to eat lunch with Allison or stay for preschool storytime which is so much better for her. As she was trying to decide she saw Miss Jenny (storytime lady) and ran up and gave her a great big hug. Miss Jenny heard the struggle Michelle was in and read her a quick impromptu story right next to her while Michelle got to hold a stuffed Cordoroy teddy bear as Miss Jenny read the story. They also gave Michelle the craft to take home. It was ADORABLE, but sadly I didn't have my phone to take a picture. I will have to get a picture of them another time but it won't be nearly as cute. It was very sweet of Miss Jenny to do that for Michelle.

Allison LOVED that we came to eat lunch with her! I am trying to go more often since this is her last year in Elementary school.

One of the biggest things that happened this week was that Matthew went on a campout/hike on Friday-Saturday.

They drove 2 hours away and camped and it was below freezing temperatures then they went hiking to what was suppose to be 1000ft elevation, but it was 3000ft and they hiked about 10 miles. They were gone until 7:15pm that night. They were all walking very sorely when they got back. Here are a few pictures one of the dads sent me.

Matthew said the views were amazing, but he only had tennis shoes on so his feet got wet and cold and he fell a lot on the ice that there was all over.

Here are some more pictures our Scoutmaster sent us.

Meanwhile he was gone, we enjoyed the peace and quiet that comes from Matthew not being around. (He bugs his sisters ALL THE TIME)

The girls got to choose what they wanted to do Friday and they chose to have a picnic, eat pizza and popcorn and watch My Little Pony. They just loved it.

Saturday, Allison was a great helper and we make 2 French Silk pies and Sugar cookies.

We gave one of the pies to the Scoutmaster when I picked Matthew up as a thank you for taking your time away from your family and for taking these boys.

Matthew now only has 1 (ONE) merit badge left!!!!

Unfortunately it is Emergency Preparedness and that one really scares me.

I REALLY want to get it done so we don't have to worry about merit badges anymore but I am not sure that will actually happen for a few months. He doesn't HAVE to have it done until next July and then if we really wanted to drag it out, not until December 2019 and even then if he went into a community troop he still has almost 5 years to complete it to get his Eagle but I would just like it done and over ASAP.

Grandma McNiven Adventures

When Grandma McNiven was here, the days before we left were for the most part, just getting her used to the area that she would have to drive and getting her used to how we do things in our house, basically acclimating her.
I wanted to take her on a Richmond Trolley Tour because it was fun to take my sisters on, I wish I could remember everywhere they went and everything they said so I wouldn't have to pay to take people on it, but I can't so Michelle, Grandma and I went on a Trolley tour. I was wanting Chris to take my mom on this one since I had already been on it, but he was too swamped with work that he had to get done before leaving since he would be missing a week of that work so he worked late and long days and didn't have time like he normally does to do that.
Michelle LOVED the trolley because her favorite show, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood rides a trolley so she thought it was SUPER cool, unfortunately I didn't actually get a picture of her by or in the trolley. It was a bit of a rainy day but still fun to show my mom around this historic town.

My mom had to leave on Wednesday so I planned that for Monday and Tuesday, I would take her up to DC because she had never been there before.
I was just going to take her and Michelle up and spend the night up there in a hotel but the kids were out of school on Tuesday so I decided they could come with us on Tuesday, since it has been about 4 years since they have seen DC.
On Monday, we drove up and did the US Capitol Tour. I didn't do it with Tina, but knew what I could and couldn't bring this time. My mom REALLY enjoyed being in the Capitol and doing the Capitol tour. We spent most of the day in there.
The Rotunda of the Capitol

It was good to have Michelle with us because Michelle can't do as much and I am learning that even though my mom is AMAZING, she is also in her 70s and could still do whatever I wanted her too, but then she would be completely exhausted, so having to go a little bit slower because of Michelle worked out well for my mom. I did a 48-hour bus tour for my mom and I and then just a day bus tour for the kids on Tuesday. We got to see some of the museums and she REALLY enjoyed reading and learning ALL about the Wright brothers. We spent a lot of time there.

On Monday we had pretty good traffic going up and back so that was pretty good.
HOWEVER, on Tuesday, we had horrible DC traffic!!! It was quite the experience for my mom.
We were glad she got the full I-95 experience, or she might have thought we were lying about 95 being horrible many times.
There was a wreck or something and we ended up parked on I-95 and got out and ran around the car a few times, than started having a dance party and took pictures.

I said this OVER and OVER and OVER while with my mom. I was SOOOO glad I was with her and not Tina. I think it was a little miracle and mercy on me that it happened this way and not the other way of having bad traffic with Tina.

We finally made it to DC, and got on the bus to take us to the American History Museum and make our way around the landmarks of DC.

My mom got to see Dorothy's red shoes, Abraham Lincoln's black top hat, many planes, the hope diamond. I am sure we saw other things but I can't remember what all now. She could have spent so much more time in all of the museums but we only had time to hit the main big things.
She got to see the Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and the White House.
Since we left after rush hours, we didn't have a lot of traffic to deal with coming back.
Wednesday, she had to fly back home but I think she was ready to be back in her own house and ready to do her own things, but we are sure grateful for her.

Cruise - Day 8 (November 4, 2018)

Not a whole lot happened on this day.
We were up by 5 and waiting for our final invoice that they said would be on our door at 5:30, we never got it but we left the ship anyways. Thankfully everything looked right when we checked it on our room tv.
It was pretty easy to get off the ship and go through customs. Thankfully we were one of the first so there wasn't a lot of waiting.

My Uber account was still messed up so we scheduled a Lyft and they picked us up within 10 minutes and got us to the airport very easily.
We were worried we wouldn't have enough time but we ended up having plenty of time before our plane left which was better than stressing out.
We did not fly the same company going back to Richmond as we did coming from Florida. The tickets were cheaper but that is because we had to pay an additional $100 to send our luggage with us. We only had to pay $25 for the way down and even though we had the same luggage, it was 4x the price. The trays in the seats were just a joke they were so small, and the customer service was horrible. Everything you had to pay more for and it was horrible experience all around. I will never fly SPIRIT airlines again, and I don't recommend anybody else buy SPIRIT airlines. They seem like the cheapest tickets upfront but once you get there, they will get your money.
This is what I wrote of Facebook when I got home:

I would NOT recommend Spirit airlines to anybody. If you don't plan on flying with ANY luggage it might be a low price but then you pay for it when you get there. We had to pay $100 for our two bags that we previously had as a carry-on for our flight out with JetBlue. Spirit's logo is Bare flight and that really is what you get, just a seat but you have to pay for everything else. The tray tables were so small, it was laughable. 
DO NOT USE SPIRIT AIRLINES!!!

Spirits airplanes are almost entirely yellow, I think that means
CAUTION: DON'T FLY WITH US!!!

Sharon & Eddie Richardson came to pick us up from the airport. We got home about noon. When they dropped us off at home the girls came running out, SOOOO excited that we were home. They had only gotten home from church about 10 minutes before.
My mom was very relieved to have us home. Not that the kids were bad at all, they weren't but she is just not used to having to be in charge of kids all the time. She said, she wasn't sure if the kids were more happy we were home or her. She said, it is a lot of pressure to be in charge of someone's most valuable treasures, as well as our car and house. She was so glad that all the kids were ok, she didn't wreck the van, or burn the house down.
She was finally off the clock and so glad she was done being in charge:)
We were SOOOO very thankful for her sacrifice to come be with our kids, we have never been able to do that before because we didn't have someone to watch the kids so we are beyond grateful for her.

Cruise - Day 7 (November 3, 2018)

Not a whole lot happened this day, just more at sea all day. We were basically done by this point. I think a 5 day cruise would be best.
We ate breakfast at the Windjammer.
We got invited to the VIP art auction, so that made us feel a little special and gave us something to do. At the auction, our number got picked and we won MORE champagne! Yay for us....we decided that maybe we should give it to a couple that we met from the first auction and have run into a whole lot more than the people we went on the ship with, and they were a fun older than us couple. They were definitely grandparents, but cool couple. Anyways, we went up to them and asked them in they drank champagne, and when she said they didn't, I looked and thought that I could see that she were garments, so I then asked them if they were Mormons? When she said yes, I said so were we. We laughed and said, I mean members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints:)
They were from Ohio. We ended up just giving the champagne back to the auctioneer, which he was a little surprised about.
We had lunch at a pizza place, relaxed, stared out into the big calm sea, enjoyed the warm weather, read books, and napped.

We had our last dinner and we did actually take a picture with all of us in it, but I will have to get that from the other couple.
Here we are with our waiter and assistant waiter.

After dinner we went to the card room to play one last time together. There was another group of couples and as we heard them talking we knew that they were members of the church also. We asked where they were from and they were from all over but they were good friends in graduate school and finally getting back together on a cruise.
We needed to be one of the first ones off of the ship because we had an early flight so we had to get up pretty early to make sure we were ready and in line to get off.

Cruise - Day 6 (November 2, 2018)

We left Puerto Rico at 1pm and it took us all that time and all night to sail to Labadee, Haiti. We got there about 8-9ish in the morning.
People could do a zipline for $100/each or a few other excursions but there weren't a whole lot of options.
We just laid in beach chairs reading books, talking and enjoying the waves. We were with our friends there.

I think this part of the trip, Royal Caribbean, bought part of Haiti to bring people too. We were there all day, the cruise line and the stuff provided lunch for us on the beach.
Chris and I tried to swim but it was really rocky the side that we were. After that I played sand volleyball.  

After we were about done with the beach, Chris and I walked through the market there. They were pretty aggressive in trying to get us to buy stuff. There were just a bunch of separate shops that were right next to each other. There were many people working each shop, however they all had different colored shirts on. It was as if, they had their own domain of land they could get people to come into their shop but they couldn't go to different areas. It was pretty crazy and kind of too much.

We walked from the side of the island we were on with the big waves and rockier beach, through the markets to the other beach. It was much busier but the beach was smooth, there weren't waves and there were a lot of places and things for kids to play on so there were a lot more families over there.
I looked at it and then headed to the ship. As we were on our way to the ship, we passed another area that was closed off unless you were an elite cruise member, then you had more of a private beach area.

Got back on ship and then showered and got ready for formal dinner.
Here is the Bulldog we had in our room after dinner:

After we changed back into our regular clothes, we went miniature golfing and then headed to the card room to play cards with just Chris and I. Then we got into see an interesting show called Blue Planet. The best parts were a time that they put a screen up to make it look like they were swimming in a tank and when they had some trampolines doing some cool things on them.

We then went to a Comedy Live at 12 midnight. It was pretty funny. I usually really like going to a comedy show with Chris. It was good and clean. We finally went to bed around 1:00am!

Cruise - Day 5 (November 1, 2018)

Got up early again, and took pictures of the sun rise. I also enjoy watching the ship park. I was surprised when they turn around completely and then go backward and then also go sideways. Just fun to watch to me.

As we were getting into San Juan, Puerto Rico, I was able to actually get some service. I reached out to my mom to see if she had any questions for me. She said that she thought Allison was really missing me. Since I had service, I called her early Thursday morning before she went to school because we would be have left Puerto Rico, by the time she got home from school and wouldn't have service again. When I called Allison, she was SOOO excited to talk to me. She told me how much she loved me and missed me. She is so stinking sweet most of the time. She told me about trick-or-treating with Grandma. I had a map for Grandma to follow for trick-or-treating so they wouldn't get lost, but she didn't follow it and they got lost, but thankfully I have old enough kids to know how to get home. The kids were good with Michelle for the first little bit until they met up with friends and then it was hard for my mom to keep track of them going faster and being with Michelle. Michelle did fall at one point and cried because she thought that she couldn't trick-or-treat anymore because she got a hole in her tights. Poor sweet girl. My mom was so glad to be done with trick-or treating. She was worried about that one.
This is the one blurry picture that Grandma got of them trick-or-treating. She is still getting used to her smart phone.
Matthew was Ron Weasley,
Allison was Rainbow Dash (for about the 4th year in a row, we have gotten our $10 out of that outfit, and she is too big for it)
Michelle was Strawberry Shortcake

I called back later to talk to Matthew but there wasn't as much of a conversation.

We got off at Puerto Rico and walked to one fort, but it wasn't open yet so we walked to another one and looked around. We went into the shops that were open and got some sunglasses that have a life-time warranty on them and they are polarized.
My mom called me while we were walking the streets because the bathroom door got locked and closed and she didn't know how to open it. She thought that Michelle had left the water running. She eventually got it opened and realized the sound she heard was the fan, and not running water thankfully.

Statue of Christopher Columbus

Umbrella street I guess

Looking over the wall of the first fort we were able to get to.

We walked around the fort and the city and then headed back to the first fort.

We paid to go into the fort and it was really cool. There was even a dungeon, and it was just amazing.

We had to be on the ship by 1:00pm, which we did after stopping by Walgreens to pick up some needed stuff.

When we left Puerto Rico there was a very small boat that escorted us out, it was kind of weird.

Michelle wanted to see a picture of our room to see if we had a bed to sleep on so we sent her a picture of our room.

We went to another art auction but it was the jr. auctioneer and it wasn't as much fun so we left early.

We went to dinner and then went to the Ice Show afterwards.
It was crazy to watch the Ice Show and see what they could do on the ice on a SHIP!! They fell quite a bit unfortunately but I think it was because we were at rough seas.
Then we went to listen to Lou Gazzara who was on America's Got Talent or American Idol, I can't remember which one. He did a great job.